Shift Lead & Operations Manager Wages

[pk_chicken]

Hello-

I just spend about an hour reading posts as not to be the new one who asks the same questions, but I couldn’t find much in specifics around wages for shift leads and “new” managers that are promoted from within with no prior management experience?

I just finished a year of mentoring an employee who has been with me for 8+ years into kitchen management. He is stellar in operations but not going to work out in staff management. Good first run at this and good realizations around being able to teach skills like ordering and inventory, but interpersonal skills and leadership need to be an existing personality trait that can be developed.

I am thinking about moving to a model where I will have current long term employees who are already looked to as leaders ( and are looking for ways to promote) take on shift lead positions to be responsible for making sure all the duties of the shifts are being taken care of. I was wondering how much folks pay shift leads above and beyond their current hourly?

Also, how much do folks pay for kitchen managers that are promoted from within and learning as they go with steady mentorship? And how much do you pay for kitchen managers with prior experience?

We are in a small city with a $10.66 living wage minimum wage.

 

[bodegahwy]

Are you in Santa Fe? Our wage levels are very similar even though there is no law requiring it.

We have a general manager and a couple of assistant managers. When the general manager is not there, the assistant manager is in charge. They open and close on the GM’s day off. When we promote a cook to assistant manager they get a $1.00 per hour raise. When they can open and close (usually about a month later) they get another dollar an hour raise. Beyond that it depends on manager team bonuses which are based on sales and costs.

Asst Mngrs make $2-3 per hour above the top cook wage and $3-4 over typical cook wages.

Our general manager, hires & fires, buys food, writes the schedule, is overall in charge of equipment and vehicle maintenance. The GM makes $3-5 more per hour than the assistant managers depending on how manager team bones are running.

Both general managers and assistant managers get paid vacation. 1 week after a year, 2 weeks after two years and 3 weeks after three years. Paid vacation for assistant managers is $400 per week. For the GM it is $500 per week. I limit when paid vacation can be taken to our off seasons.

The GM gets a season ski pass ($1000). Assistant managers get half the pass the first year, 3/4 of the pass the second year and the full pass thereafter.

 

[pk_chicken]

HI HI! I am in Santa Fe. My apologies for not responding to this sooner, I didn’t see a response for a few and then somehow everything from PMQ started getting sent to a junk mail folder… Anyhoo…

What does your role look like as the owner once you have this structure in place for a GM & assistant managers? Do either of these roles handle deposits to the bank or any book keeping for you?

Thanks again!

 

[bodegahwy]

Closing manager makes the bank deposits. I have never understood why some owners insist on making the deposit… If the money is off for the night it will still be off in the morning and having the cash in the bank will not change that; it just adds risk by leaving the money in the store over night if the owner is not there at closing. So, closer does the books and makes the deposit.

GM prints out the weekly and monthly reports and takes inventory. He also runs the payroll report and calls in the wages to ADP. Major food vendors are paid by credit card and all other vendors are monthly pay so there is no day to day or weekly book keeping beyond the reports the
GM takes care of.

As owner, I handle marketing, pay the bills (twice a month, takes about an hour), set prices and determine the menu. I talk to the GM about staffing and costs and provide feedback on how things are going. Current GM has been with us for many years so day to day stuff rarely comes in front of me.